


Stars Must Look On Forever

by Mimoaning (eternalhiraeth)



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Peter Pan Fusion, F/F, LostGirls!SchoolMealClub, PeterPan!Momo, Tinkerbell!Sana, incorrect usage of ballet terminology, might count as a halloween fic, this is not fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-11-26 09:29:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20927972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eternalhiraeth/pseuds/Mimoaning
Summary: Every night, a girl flies in through the window and tells her stories.One day, Mina becomes one.





	Stars Must Look On Forever

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the OncesNeverSleep collection, in celebration of twice's 4th anniversary!
> 
> The chosen line will be in the end notes, for spoiler-related reasons.
> 
> (I honestly cannot remember how I came up with this but let's see if past me was onto something.)

**“Stars are beautiful, but they may not take an active part in anything, they must just look on forever. It is a punishment put on them for something they did so long ago that no star now knows what it was. So the older ones have become glassy-eyed and seldom speak (winking is the star language), but the little ones still wonder.” **

**― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan**

* * *

_“Once upon a time, there was a girl. She lived in a big house, with lots of windows and not enough people. You see, the girl’s parents weren’t around much, not even on her birthday. Fear not, though, because there was another girl, who came flying into her room at night and- ”_

_“Momo, I already know this one.”_

_“I’m pretty sure I haven’t told it yet.”_

_“No, but-“_

_“Hush, then. As I was saying…”_

|||

She came on the night of her thirteenth birthday.

It was a Saturday, Mina thinks, because she remembers waking up at noon and finding the house empty but for a note in the kitchen table, which stated that there was an emergency her parents needed to take care of at the hospital. They would most likely be back by night, it said.

They hadn’t _forgotten_ about her birthday, the chocolate cake in the fridge could attest to that. Yes, the white box from the bakery might have been folded in the trash, but neither of them were great cooks anyway. Mina decided to make herself a grilled cheese sandwich and went back into her room to play videogames until her parents came home.

The next time she checked the clock, it was 9 P.M. She stopped the game and ventured out into the living room. Empty. Her heart already heavy in her chest, she turned on her phone, only to be greeted with almost identical text messages from her mother and father, both along the lines of “something came up. we’ll be there by dawn at the latest. we’re sorry.”

Mina buried her phone underneath a mountain of decorative pillows and retrieved the cake from the fridge, carrying it into her bedroom. Not bothering to turn on the light, she laid it on the floor, sat down next to it and started stabbing at it with a fork.

It was sickly sweet, sticking to the roof of her mouth and to her throat, but she kept eating until she was practically choking on chocolate cake, unable to find the energy to get up and serve herself a glass of water. The salt of her tears made it only a bit more palatable, but there’s no telling how long she would have stayed in the dark, crying and swallowing down cake, if she hadn’t heard the faint knocking on her window.

At first she thought she was imagining it. It was windy outside and a storm was brewing in the horizon. Then again, her room was on the second floor of the house and there were no trees tall enough that could be clashing against the glass. The sound was persistent, though, so after a few seconds she got up, wiped tears and chocolate smudges off her face, and looked out the window.

Nothing. But she could use some fresh air, she figured, turning the lock without a second thought and sliding the window open.

“Why are you crying?”

Mina screamed. She tried to run and turn at the same time, which only resulted in her tripping and knocking her knees against the hard wood floor. She didn’t even register the pain, too busy clutching her chest and fumbling for something, _anything _to defend herself. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a silhouette climbing over the window frame.

Her hand found the fork and she turned around, still on the floor, ready to brandish it at the figure that was now officially inside her room.

It was a girl. She had long blond hair and she looked older than Mina, but not by much. The oddest part about her, however, was her outfit: it was green, and seemed to be completely made out of leaves. It was dark, though, surely she was seeing things that weren’t there.

Maybe it was the strange attire or the glimmer in the girl’s wide eyes, but for some reason Mina found herself laying down the fork, the adrenaline in her veins rapidly wearing off. There was a question on her tongue (or rather, a couple thousands), but the other girl was quicker.

“Is that cake?”

Mina just stared, the absurdity of the situation hitting her so suddenly that she almost laughed. She reached for the box with the remains of the chocolate cake, slid it towards the girl and took advantage of that distraction to get up and flip the light switch.

Well, those were leaves alright.

Mina watched the girl like she would a wild animal: fascinated, but keeping her distance. She was pretty, she thought ridiculously, as the other dug her hands into the cake and shoved it in her mouth. There wasn’t much left of it, and she was a fast eater, so Mina wasn’t granted enough time to further assess the situation. When the girl was done, she looked up and quirked her eyebrows, as if she had forgotten Mina was there. Then she licked her fingers clean, stood up and held out her hand.

“Sorry, manners. I’m Momo. Momo Pan.”

|||

_“Once upon a time, a little girl was born, and her parents loved her very much. Or so they said.”_

_“What do you mean?”_

_“When the little girl started growing up, her parents filled her wardrobe with dresses and forbade her from playing in the sun. They said that would help her find a decent husband.”_

_“That’s awful. What happened next?”_

_“She jumped out a window and ran away. It took her nights and nights, but eventually she went second to the right and found Neverland. Nobody lived there back then, so the island made her queen.”_

_“Neverland? As in _your_ Neverland?”_

_“Mhm.”_

_“Have you ever met the queen?”_

_“What? No, Minari. It’s just a story.”_

|||

“How? Just _how_ do you climb a two-story house?”

“Mina, I’ve told you a thousand times already. I don’t need to climb, I can fly.”

“Right. The fairy dust and all that jazz.”

Momo hummed around a mouthful of cupcake. Mina had started leaving a tray of sweet treats on her nightstand every night; an attempt at satisfying Momo’s perpetual hunger. Some mornings the tray would sit untouched, and that was the only way Mina could track Momo’s visits. She found she entered a peculiar, uncanny headspace during each of their encounters. Mina would often find herself forgetting about them, or waking up to an empty tray and somehow still convinced that it had all been a dream. The thought seemed ridiculous when Momo was standing right in front of her, but as soon as she left her line of sight their conversations and the stories she told would blend in Mina’s head, making it impossible to tell what was real from what wasn’t.

In her few moments of lucidity, she wondered if Momo needed help. A young girl with plants for clothing, constantly famished and out in the streets in the middle of the night; Mina often thought perhaps she ought to tell someone. Then she realized that anyone that heard about the girl that flew into her room at outrageous hours of the night to tell her stories would probably think _Mina_ was the one who needed help.

Momo finished the cupcake while Mina tried to brush the crumbs off her bedspread.

“If all you need is fairy dust, could I fly too, if you gave me some?” Mina asked, having long since figured out that playing along with whatever nonsense that came out of Momo’s mouth was more fun and less frustrating than trying to reason with her.

Momo’s eyes widened.

“Yeah! That’s a great idea, actually.” Then her enthusiasm visibly waned. “I’d have to ask Sana, though, and I don’t think she would like that…”

Sana, the fairy. Momo had mentioned her a few times before. Mina snorted and smiled in spite of herself.

“Oh, really? Why is that?”

“She gets really jealous. Especially of pretty girls like you,” Momo said with a mischievous smirk.

Heat bloomed in Mina’s cheeks.

|||

_“Once upon a time, the queen went back to visit her old parents. She believed that perhaps, after her long absence, they would have seen the error of their ways and beg her to come home. But when the queen got to the house and looked through the window, they weren’t alone. There was a baby boy with them.”_

_“She had a little brother!”_

_“Exactly. Her parents hadn’t learned a thing. When they couldn’t make the queen grow up, they decided to make another child, and make sure this time they wouldn’t fail. There were bars on the window.”_

_“Maybe they were just lonely without their daughter.”_

_“No. They were evil. And the queen knew it. So, she called for her fairy friends and waited until everyone was asleep, and together they took the boy from the house and carried him to Neverland.”_

_“Did the fairies tell you this story?”_

_“Yes. But I know for a fact it isn’t true.”_

_“How come?”_

_“There aren’t any boys in Neverland.”_

|||

Her fourteenth birthday came and went, but all Mina can remember about it is that her parents were home that night, and she couldn’t have been more miserable. Every night she couldn’t meet Momo had started to feel like a missed opportunity, and every time she went to bed she barely slept, hoping for the familiar knock on the window. The lack of sleep was made up for in the afternoons, which made the time she spent waiting for the sun to go down much shorter.

It seemed like her whole life revolved around her odd friend and her tales. She had little time to dedicate to her school friends (though she never liked them that much anyway) and her grades went from outstanding to “mostly good”. Her parents sent her to a therapist, who came to the conclusion that she was neglected and lonely. This diagnosis offended them into letting her drop their sessions. The only thing she really would have mourned the loss of was ballet, so she kept doing her best, even when she felt like collapsing from exhaustion during practice.

And then she turned fifteen.

Her parents couldn’t make it this year either, but no matter: there was cake in the fridge and a whisper in Mina’s chest that told her she’d definitely see Momo that night. And sure enough, as soon as the world went dark, there was the sound of knuckles rapping on glass.

Mina leaped off the bed as the window slid open, unlocked as it had remained for two years already. She run across the room and took Momo’s hands to help her in. Then she didn’t let go.

“You’re here!”

Momo gave her a confused smile.

“Yeah, of course. You seem happier than usual.”

Mina tried to choke down her disappointment. Momo had a tendency to forget things, even information she’d learnt hours ago. Most of the time, it was endearing.

“It’s my birthday today, Momo.”

“Eh?” the girl frowned and took a step forward, eyes darting across Mina’s features as if trying to read the years in her face. She was so close that her bangs almost brushed Mina’s forehead. It made her heart beat wilder. “How old are you?”

There was an accusatory tone to her words that perplexed Mina, who was already dazed enough with Momo’s proximity.

“Uh… I’m fifteen.”

Momo let go of her with a horrified gasp.

“Oh, dear. I’m almost too late.”

“What do you mean? It’s like eight o’clock…” she tried to turn around to check the clock, but Momo stopped her by grabbing a hold of her shoulders, an intense look in her eyes.

“Mina, you’re almost grown up!”

Right. Momo seemed to dislike the concept of aging on principle.

“Momo, fifteen years old is hardly ‘grown up’… Besides, how old are _you_?” she hadn’t stopped to think about it in a long time, but she seemed to recall being several centimeters shorter than Momo when she first met her, where now they were exactly the same height.

“I’m not. I’ve already told you, I don’t age,” there was an earnestness in Momo’s voice when she talked about herself that scared Mina. It made her feel like Momo believed what she was saying with all her heart, which would mean that there was something wrong with her beyond just being a liar.

“Momo…”

“Look at me. Do I look any older than I was when we first met?”

“I mean, no. But that’s how growing up works, you can’t really tell while it’s happening unless…” she trailed off. The more she looked at Momo, the easier to believe it became. She shook her head; it was a testament to how much she cared for Momo that she even entertained the idea for a second.

“Don’t worry, though,” said Momo. “I can fix it,” Mina opened her mouth to protest, but Momo shushed her. “Close your eyes.”

“What?” it scandalized her for some reason.

“Just do it. Think of it as a birthday present.”

_Play along_, Mina thought. _Always play along._

There was something about standing in front of Momo, close enough to feel her body heat and with her eyes shut that made Mina hold her breath. Her heart started beating violently, her cheeks warmed up and her tongue subconsciously darted out to wet her lips. She heard the rustling of clothes and felt Momo leaning even closer, almost touching her face…

And then she felt as if a bucket of glitter had been dumped on her. She opened her eyes, coughing and fighting off the urge to sneeze. Through reflex tears she saw thousands of golden specks drifting in the air around her, landing on her nightgown and her eyelashes.

“Momo, what the hell?” she managed to cough out.

“I got it!”

“Got what? What is this?”

“Fairy dust, remember? So you can fly! Try not to swallow it though, or you’ll end up the size of your hand.”

Mina shot her an incredulous look. She’d never expected Momo to follow through with that promise because, well, it was insane. She had half a mind to tell her so, but then she saw Momo’s eyes lit up with so much joy and excitement that all her irritation melted away, leaving in its place a deep seated sadness for her friend’s mental state and an irrational want to believe her, no matter how deranged she sounded.

“Momo… how is a bunch of gli –fairy dust supposed to help me fly?”

“Oh, it’s real simple,” Momo turned around to slide the window all the way open, then looked back at Mina. Her eyes held an unhinged glint that should have alerted Mina much sooner. “Once you’ve been sprinkled with fairy dust,” she climbed on top of the window sill, squatting on it so that she fit perfectly inside the opening. Mina took a step forward. “You just gotta have some lovely, wonderful, thoughts…”

“Momo…” Mina slowly approached the window. _No sudden moves, _echoed in her head.

“And then,” Momo gripped the sides of the window frame and Mina’s heart lodged itself in her throat.

“Momo.”

“You jump!”

“MOMO!”

Momo pushed herself backwards while Mina launched forward, hands reaching blindly for something that would stop her friend from toppling into the dark. She failed.

For a second, silence. Mina stared in horror at the space her friend had occupied a moment ago. The pit of dread in her stomach only seemed to grow larger; it felt like the realization would never finish hitting her. Her gaze wandered, as though searching for someone to tell her that that hadn’t just happened, that it’d been just a wild fragment of her imagination.

Looking was the last thing she wanted to do, but she had to know. Surely it was possible to survive a two-story fall, albeit with a few broken bones. She clutched her stomach in an attempt to appease a wave of nausea and leaned over the window frame.

All she saw was an empty street. It was dark, but the streetlights were bright enough that a body smashed against the sidewalk should have been instantly visible. The pit in her stomach was filled with an odd mix of relief and anxiety. She truly had imagined it all. Her head spun, replaying every memory from the past two years and clinging to them with the same desperation demanded by the sweetest of dreams in the early morning.

“See?”

This time, Mina didn’t trip and fall. She just clenched her fists and felt her eyes fill with tears and her chest with terror at the sight of her best friend’s upside-down smile, a blond Cheshire Cat.

“Mina? Are you okay?”

Momo _flew_ back into the room and took her into her arms. Mina couldn’t help but flinch. Her tears landed freely on Momo’s shoulder.

It took a few minutes for her to stop sobbing. All the while Momo asked her again and again what was wrong, but if she didn’t know already, Mina knew there was no point in explaining. They sat down on the floor as Mina tried to reconcile the fantasy world Momo had created for them with reality as she knew it, but it proved near impossible. So be it, then. With Momo’s hand running through her hair and the worry in her eyes piercing her soul, the real world was easily outmatched.

“Okay. You can fly.”

“And so can you. I’ll teach you,” Mina stared at her, wide-eyed. “We can start by jumping off the bed, though.”

_Lovely, wonderful thoughts, _Momo had said. They stood on the edge of Mina’s bed, hand in hand. Mina looked over at Momo and knew instantly what memory was most likely to make her fly, fairy dust or not. She closed her eyes, squeezed Momo’s hand tight and jumped. Her feet never touched the ground.

Flying came easily to Mina, be it because of her grace (natural, yet heavily polished by ballet) or the copious amounts of fairy dust she already knew would be a pain to get out of her hair. Soon, the room became too small for her, and after she knocked over the same lamp twice, Momo stopped her.

“Mina,” she said, joining her in the air and taking her hand. “I didn’t just come here to teach you how to fly.”

“Oh?”

“It’s the Lost Girls. They need a queen,” she leaned in so that her lips brushed Mina’s ear and then whispered, “and I think you’d be a perfect fit.”

Mina blinked at her, feeling rather unqueenly in her tear-stained nightgown.

“Me? A queen? I don’t know, Momo…”

“Just think about it: you’re the smartest girl I’ve ever met, you always know what to do and you like helping people.”

“I like helping _you._”

“Then you’re halfway there already!”

A smile started to tug at the corners of her lips.

“If I agree to be queen, will you be my subject or will you reign with me?”

Momo did an exaggerated curtsy in the air and winked at her.

“I’ll be whatever my queen desires.”

Mina had to hide a giggle behind her hands. Then she frowned.

“What about my parents?”

“Mina, it’s your birthday and they’re not here,” Momo huffed as if personally offended by that fact. “Maybe this’ll show them what happens when you’re too busy with _work_.”

She could have pretended to be considering it, but the truth is that Mina’s mind was made the second Momo had knocked on her window for the first time. Besides, it wouldn’t be forever. Momo traveled to and from Neverland all the time, equipped only with fairy dust. She’d be back as soon as she wanted to.

Mina smiled and flew towards the window, dragging Momo by the hand. She looked at the sky, then back at Momo.

“Second to the right, was it?”

And they both flew into the night, not bothering to close the window behind them.

|||

_“Once upon a time, there was a girl who lived with her father, and she hated him. Every night he’d drink his wine and scream and hit, and every morning the girl would stay in her room and hoped to never get out.”_

_“That’s an awful story, Momo.”_

_“It has a happy middle, though!”_

_“Let’s hear it, then.”_

_“One of those nights, the girl locked herself in her room and asked the stars to take her away form that man. And the stars listened, because they’re kind. They helped her find Neverland.”_

_“Was she happy there?”_

_“The happiest. She charmed every creature in Neverland with her voice, even the queen. At night the mermaids would come out to sing with her, but in truth they were very jealous. The girl didn’t realize that, though, and night by night she fell in love with the mermaids, until she wished for nothing more than to be with them forever.”_

_“Did she get her wish?”_

_“In a way.”_

|||

Somehow, Neverland managed to be exactly as she’d imagined it.

“Of course it is,” Momo said, strange look on her face, when she mentioned this. That happened often: things that should have been obvious, she was surprised by; and that which Mina found remarkable was ordinary at most. Having a conversation with Momo tended to feel like opening a Russian doll.

The island was an amalgamation of clear blues and bright greens, rock and wood. There were no signs of civilization, except for the ship she thought she saw sailing in the distance. There was no time to dwell on it, though, because the trees were getting closer and bigger, and Mina realized just before she hit the ground that although Momo had taught her how to fly, she never said how to stop.

The first thing she noticed when she woke up some time later (besides a dull ache in the back of her head) were the four pairs of eyes hovering above her, only one of which she recognized as Momo’s. The other three girls, knelt beside her, watched her sit up with curiosity and a hint of unease. Mina secretly nicknamed them “the tall one”, “the short one”, and “the smiley one”.

Momo clicked her tongue and gave them a light smack in the head.

“Your Majesty,” the girls bowed their heads in greeting.

A smile spread across Mina’s features.

◊◊◊

In the short time that she’d been aware of Neverland’s existence, Mina had been consciously revisiting her memories with Momo in order to be prepared for anything she might encounter. And she thought she’d been doing a good job, right up until Sana showed up.

She was about fifteen centimeters tall, with sparkly, golden wings that sprouted from her back, and a face so tiny that Mina could barely tell, but it was lovely. The fairy had come out of the forest unnoticed and was now creeping towards her, gauging. Her expression was unreadable.

What was it that Momo had said?

Sana opened her mouth, but no voice came out of it. Instead, a sound like that of a bell being violently shaken pierced Mina’s ears as Sana grabbed a hold of her hair and started pulling up. Right. The jealousy thing.

Mina screamed out in pain, standing on her tip-toes to lessen the tension while she swatted the air like she would a fly. She thought about catching Sana and forcing her off, but she was so small she was afraid she’d crush her. Momo rushed towards them.

“Sana, no!” she heard her yell, and then the pain was gone. “Why do you have to be like this?” Momo asked the fairy, but all she got for an answer were surprisingly angry kicks to her hands.

Finally, Momo pinched the back of Sana’s dress and sent her flying among the trees.

“Don’t mind her,” said Dahyun, one of the Lost Girls. “She always gets like that when somebody new comes around. She’ll get over it.”

Mina massaged her scalp, unsure.

Momo’s mouth was still twisted in a disappointed grimace. She shot a scrutinizing look at the Lost Girls.

“Chaeyoung!” she cried, pointing at the girl that towered over the other two.

She tilted her head in confusion. “I’m Tzuyu.”

“Right, my bad. Did you get taller while I was gone?”

Tzuyu noticeably paled, looking down at herself and then at the other Lost Girls for confirmation.

“No, I don’t think so…”

Momo scratched her jaw. “Huh. Either way, don’t worry. We can always file your legs a bit if they get too long,” she then turned to Mina and rubbed her hands with a cheerful grin, as though the previous conversation hadn’t happened. “Well, what about we give our new queen a tour?”

◊◊◊

They took her to the Black Castle, which was damp and cold and “perfect for battles”, as Momo put it. The comment echoed in Mina’s mind even before she noticed the skeletons littered in every corner, hidden behind a mask of darkness. Most of them were reminiscent of those in the school’s chemistry lab, that is to say, adult-sized. Others were smaller.

Mina caught a stray tree branch that Momo had thrown in her direction. She stared, puzzled, as the Lost Girls let out a collective sound of awe. That’s when Mina noticed the combat stance Momo had taken and the branch she was holding herself.

Before she had time to think, Momo charged at her.

The branches clashed with dry thuds again and again, each time Momo offering some piece of advice on how to secure her hold on it, or balance her weight so that she wouldn’t fall over with every strike.

Mina took to dueling effortlessly. There was a melody to it, a beat to be followed. _En Avant_, attack. _Plié_, wood clashing. _En Arrieré_, don’t let yourself get killed. Eventually, they grew tired and abandoned the castle, but not before Momo promised to upgrade Mina’s branch to an actual sword. It made her fingers tingle in anticipation.

Surrounding Castle Black, there was a lagoon. Mina hadn’t paid much attention to it when they’d arrived, but now the Lost Girls lingered around, bouncing on their toes and fidgeting with the dirt caked under their fingernails. Mina turned to Momo with a quirked brow, but the girl just took her hand and brought her to the very edge of the shore, where the sand was wet. Then, she knelt and let out a whistle.

It took a moment, but meters away from them, ripples began to form on the lagoon’s surface. They got progressively closer, and at an alarming speed, but for some reason all Mina did was kneel beside Momo and stare, hypnotized, at the two women that emerged from the water. One had long, red hair; the other one was blond and short-haired, and both were completely naked, exposing webbed hands and fish tails instead of legs.

They were also the most beautiful people Mina had ever seen. She had an irrational desire to get closer, and it only deepened when one of them reached out and grabbed her hand, her face coming within centimeters of Mina’s. Her skin was so cold it was almost numbing, in every sense of the word. Mina wanted to jump into the water with them and follow wherever they went, just so she could keep looking at them and feeling the ice they were covered in…

With the sound of thunderous bells as the only warning, Sana flew at a speed Mina never would’ve thought possible and began a vicious attack on the women, throwing fairy dust in their eyes and biting their fingers, sparing a second every now and again to kick Momo, who looked a little woozy herself.

Mina shook her head, realizing at once that she had crawled halfway into the lagoon, soaking the sleeves and the bottom half of her nightgown. She felt dazed, as if she had just woken up from a deep sleep.

When she looked up, the lagoon was seemingly empty again, disturbed only by a few waves that might as well have been caused by the wind. Sana gave up on trying to bite Momo’s nose and disappeared once again in a nearby grove. Mina heard the Lost Girls dashing towards them.

“Where did Sana come from?”

“For once her jealousy came in handy. We don’t want another incident.”

“Do you think she followed us all the way from the Home Tree?”

Momo stood up and cleared her throat.

“Your Majesty,” she said, offering a hand to help Mina up, “I apologize in behalf of our Lost Girls. We must remind them that they are to protect their queen from the dangers of this island. Or else…”

She turned towards the girls with a glare and a playful grin. All three of them threw themselves at Mina’s feet, begging for mercy. Mina reassured them and stroked their hair, smiling when Momo winked at her.

“C’mon, we’ve still got lots of places to see.”

◊◊◊

At night (it’d be impossible to tell _which_ night, if there is more than one in Neverland) they had dinner in the Home Tree. “Had” is a figure of speech: really, all they did was sit at a wooden table and pretend to eat the most delicious food they could think of, as per Momo’s instructions. The strangest part was that it seemed to work. Mina wondered if Neverland would ever stop surprising her.

When they were done, Momo rubbed her stomach with a content sigh and successfully sent all the Lost Girls to bed (in no small part thanks to Mina’s promise to bring them imaginary cookies during the night). When it was only the two queens sitting at the table, Momo stood up and flew out the window, only turning to beckon Mina towards her.

It was colder outside the Home Tree, or maybe Mina just knew it was supposed to be. She joined Momo in the air and was delighted to find that the fairy dust hadn’t –or wouldn’t- worn off.

“Where are we going?”

“Shh,” Momo giggled. “We have to be very quiet, or we’ll get kicked out.”

Mina swallowed back another batch of questions. Soon enough they reached a tree that was several Minas broad and impossibly tall. She thought she’d seen one like it in a documentary when she was younger, but she couldn’t remember how it was called for the life of her. Momo cared very little about its name, so she flew up until she reached a hollow in the tree big enough for her to peek into.

It was hard to see in the distance, but now that she was pressed against it, Mina could see the familiar golden shimmer trickling down the bark, like sweat or blood. She remembered to keep her mouth shut.

When she made it to the hollow, Momo casted a sly smile her way and moved so Mina could watch. It was blinding. Fairy dust lingered in the air, clung to the walls and piled up in the floor, almost camouflaging the fairies inside. And oh, were there fairies.

Hundreds of tiny bodies fluttered inside the tree like feathers in the air, all sporting wings of various shapes and sizes and dressed in colorful attires that Mina suspected were made out of flower petals. They wandered around a pair of fairies in white dresses that danced in the middle of the room like the protagonists of a classical ballet play.

“A fairy wedding,” Momo whispered in her ear, confirming her suspicions and sending a tingle down Mina’s spine.

They watched for a while, holding their breath so as to not blow away a fairy or create a golden avalanche. Out of everything she’d seen in Neverland, this was by far the most magical. It made her fingers twitch and her eyes water, and all of a sudden she was overwhelmed by the familiar, telltale ache in her chest of a wish.

She was so mesmerized by the display of beauty that she didn’t notice Momo moving away from the tree until she felt a tap on her shoulder. When she turned, she realized that fairy weddings paled in comparison to the reflection of the moonlight on Momo’s hair.

The girl held out her hand to her. It felt like an invitation. They flew away hand in hand, so far up that the tallest leaves of the tree got caught in their hair.

Momo lifted a hand above Mina’s head and gave her a twirl, and next thing she knew she was dancing in the air. It took a while to get used to it, but once she did she had a hard time imagining how she had ever managed to dance on solid ground. Momo joined her. She lacked discipline, but where Mina had seen that breed dilettantes, it only enhanced Momo’s enthusiasm.

They danced for ages, each learning what the other had to offer in terms of flight and ballet. The corners of Mina’s mouth had started to ache, unable to shake off a giddy smile. It felt like the first time she had a dance partner, even though there’d been plenty of them, all dead eyes and stiff limbs and everything that Momo would never be.

“We should dance together forever,” the words left her mouth of their own accord. Her dance came to an embarrassed halt as she pondered the possibilities of having flown so high up that her brain was already affected by the lack of oxygen. Then again, this was Neverland.

Momo, too, stopped dancing, holding Mina’s hands in her own and full moons inside her eyes.

“Yes, Minari. We should.”

Something settled in Mina’s chest. She squeezed Momo’s hands.

“Momoring… you still owe me a birthday present,” it wasn’t true. She didn’t even know if it was her birthday anymore, if fifteen was still her age. Momo frowned, “Don’t worry, though. I know what you can get me.”

“Your wish is my command, Your Majesty,” Momo bowed her head, smirk already painting across her face.

“Close your eyes, then.”

Momo complied, long eyelashes resting tantalizingly against her cheekbones. Mina held her breath, tugged her closer and pressed her lips against Momo’s.

They were unexpectedly soft, and Mina was torn between keeping on holding Momo’s hands or cupping her face to push herself closer against her. The decision was made for her: Momo wrapped her arms around her neck with such enthusiasm that it threw them off balance and sent them crashing against a tree.

They burst into giggles, Mina’s arms around Momo’s waist as they slid down the surface of the tree. Momo’s cheeks were tinted red, and Mina’s probably weren’t better off, but it didn’t matter. She focused on untangling a leaf out of Momo’s hair as she tried her best to hide her smile and gathered the courage to look her in the eyes.

When they finally reached the ground, they sat there for a while, trying to listen for signs of the fairy wedding a couple trees away, failing miserably each time they broke into laughter. After a while, Mina caressed Momo’s cheek and laid a peck on her lips.

“We better get going. There are secret cookies I’m supposed to give the others.”

Momo smiled. Her blush was just beginning to die down but it took her a moment to find her voice.

“You’re the best queen we could’ve ever asked for, Minari.”

|||

_“Once upon a time, there was a boy in Neverland. He was good with the sword, he could fly like he’d been born with wings, and even the mermaids stayed up all night to sing him lullabies. The whole island loved him. And then he broke Neverland’s rule.”_

_“And what would that be?”_

_“Growing up, of course. He said that staying forever as a child had become boring, and that maybe becoming a grown-up could be an adventure, too. And so, he started to get older.”_

_“Is that how it works in Neverland? You grow up at will?”_

_“Well, how else could it be? Anyways, by the time the queen noticed his crime, it was too late. He could no longer stop time from changing him, and he knew the queen wouldn’t like it, so he tried to escape. It was hard, but with the help of his best friend, he managed to get his hands on a ship. They didn’t get very far, though. The queen found them on time.”_

_“What did she do to them?”_

_“The boy, she pushed into the sea. He could swim, of course, but not as fast as a crocodile. He lost his hand and the queen never saw him again. She did catch the girl, though, and she was even more furious at her.”_

_“Why?”_

_“You see, she was the queen’s best friend, too. And she betrayed her.”_

_“What happened to her?”_

_“I don’t remember the ending to this one. Do you wanna make one up?”_

|||

She was stolen away in the middle of the night by a man whose name and hand had been replaced by a hook.

It wasn’t the movement of the ocean that woke her, or even the gruff attempt at a song by the crew on board. It was the sound of blade meeting flesh, right outside the room she was in, that sent a dart of adrenaline into her veins and shot her eyes open.

Momo was there. She’d come for her.

Disoriented but determined, she got on her feet and left the cabin. The hallway outside was empty, except for the body of a woman slumped against a wall, red seeping from a wound Mina refused to find. Her hands were limp and cold when Mina took a sword from them, and if there was any life left in her eyes, she ignored it.

After struggling to single-handedly climb the ladder, she made it on deck. The screaming was so loud she had to resist the urge to cover her ears, and everyone was moving so quickly that it was hard to keep up with what was going on right in front of her. Was that Dahyun being dragged by the hair? Was the silver glint in Chaeyoung’s hand a knife or a pair of scissors?

Where was Momo? Where was the hook-handed man she’d seen while she was in the place between dream and wakefulness?

She didn’t have to wonder long. As soon as she turned a corner a hand was around her throat, slamming her against a wall and out of everyone’s line of sight. A metallic clank let her know that her sword had hit the floor. Her head throbbed as she looked up to meet the man’s gaze. He was blond, not much older than her, and was lightly digging the tip of his hook into her cheek. Her eyes swam with tears.

“What do you want?” she rasped. The pressure on her throat wasn’t enough to choke her, but it certainly made talking an arduous task.

“I just want to go home, dear,” his voice was low and velvety. There was a sad sincerity in his eyes that clashed with the sting of the metal against her skin. “And I need your friend to help me do that.”

“You’re trying to kill us all. Momo would never do anything for you.”

A sobering look settled across his features. He clenched his jaw, lowering his hook. Blood ran down Mina’s cheek like thick, hot tears.

“You’d be surprised by how easily Momo forgets things,” he whispered, so soft that Mina struggled to hear him over the clamor of battle. Then he regained his pleasant demeanor, “But you’re probably right. Although she’d do it if you asked her to, don’t you think?”

Mina swallowed and therefore realized that his grip on her throat had loosened. There’s no way of knowing what would’ve happened if she hadn’t reached blindly for the sword at her feet, but she’ll never have to find out.

_En Avant_. He managed to dodge her blow, but had to catch the next one with his hook. _Plié_. They struggled for a bit, she had the speed and he the strength.

“Nobody has to get hurt, darling. All you have to do is call for Momo and tell her to get me home.”

Sweat beads were beginning to run down Mina’s temples. She bared her teeth.

“Never.”

Hook tilted his head with a disappointed click of his tongue.

“So be it, then.”

_En Arrieré_. Mina understood how much he’d been holding back. She managed to block him, but her arms were already beginning to shake from exhaustion and the sweat barely let her see. Metal clashed once again and her sword caught in the hook. Almost as unsettling, there was a hint of sorrow in his eyes when their gazes met.

“Just say the word, Mina. Call for Momo and it’ll all be over.”

“No!”

He shoved her and Mina’s knees buckled under her, bruising against the wood boards of the ship. She tried to lift her sword in a last attempt at defending herself, but Hook was quicker and laid a boot on the blade, rendering it immovable.

“Say her name.”

“I won’t,” tears gathered in her eyes.

“I have your girlfriend, Momo!” he yelled, lunging forward just as Mina stood up and started to run.

_Fondu_.

At first she thought he’d punched her. The shock was similar and she was just as out of breath. But that didn’t explain the burning sensation in her gut, threatening to expand down her pelvis and into her spine. She looked down at herself, holding her breath. His hook was buried in her lower abdomen and stained crimson around the edges. She stared, petrified in place.

He removed the weapon and that’s when she screamed. She wanted to cry, but breathing was hard enough and she knew she couldn’t afford it. Her hands rushed to instinctively put pressure on the wound, but to no avail: in seconds her nightgown was tinted red. Her teeth began to chatter.

Another scream, this time in a different voice. She looked up to see Momo hovering over Hook, sword in hand and furious tears in her eyes.

“Why would you do that for? I hate you!” she screamed, already slamming her blade against Hook’s.

“You know what I want,” Hook was a very skilled dueler, but his inability to fly put him at an obvious disadvantage, and he was slowly being driven toward the edge of the ship. “Let me go home, Momo, and you’ll never hear from me again.”

“No! You’re evil! Evilevilevil-“

Mina clung desperately to consciousness, but she could tell she was losing the battle. She was unable to form a single coherent thought and she could hear the sound of a clock ticking in the back of her mind, no doubt a hallucination of some kind. She tried to find a comfortable position to lie in, but all she managed to do was soak the rest of her nightgown in the pool of blood that was forming beneath her. The movement of the waves was unbearable. She wanted to go to sleep.

The next time she was able to focus on the battle, Momo was holding Hook above the water by the collar of his shirt. His limbs flailed wildly, hook missing Momo’s skin almost purposefully.

“Please, Momo,” said the man. “We could both go home...”

Momo shook her head violently.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said as she let go of Hook, just in time for an enormous crocodile to jump out of the water and swallow him whole.

The last thing Mina heard before passing out was the crocodile tick-tocking away.

|||

_“Once upon a time, there was a fairy. She lived in Neverland, but she was sad all the time, because nobody loved her.”_

_“Not even the other fairies?”_

_“Oh, they didn’t like her because she hadn’t been born a fairy, and fairies are very judgmental little things. The humans didn’t want her either, because she was mean to them, and mermaids don’t like anyone ever. The queen didn’t want her around, because the fairy had once offended her greatly, they say. And so she kept wandering through Neverland, looking for someone to love her.”_

_“How does the story end?”_

_“It doesn’t.”_

|||

Pain was all she knew.

Well, that’s not true. She knew she’d been laid down somewhere in the Home Tree. She knew something was tied around her hip and over her wound. She knew her skin was clammy, that she felt queasy and that she was cold.

She knew she was dying. 

Her mind fluctuated between dream and consciousness, and a place where nothing was real but everything was scary.

And Momo was there.

“Don’t worry, Minari. We’ve defeated the bad guys!”

Hook. A giant crocodile. Tick-tock.

Mina took a shaky breath that hurt all the way to the next one.

“Momo, I’m dying.”

“What? No. You’ll get better and we’ll make Hook pay for this, you’ll see.”

Mina stared at her. She knew she hadn’t dreamt it. She remembered being thirteen, thinking her best friend was crazy. She closed her eyes. Tick-tock.

“How long has it been? Since I was hurt, I mean.”

“It hasn’t. This is Neverland, remember?”

Mina tried to sit up and clear her head. Her parents were doctors. If the wound hadn’t killed her yet it probably hadn’t ruptured any vital organs; bleeding to death seemed like the most likely outcome. She dared a look at the slit in her nightgown. It was pretty low. Sepsis, maybe? Weirdly enough, she was hungry. Then again, she’d been living on a diet of pretend-chocolate-cake for however long she’d been there.

She needed her parents. If she could make it back to them in time, she would survive.

“Momo, I think I need to see a doctor. A real one.”

“What?” Momo’s lower lip began to wobble. Her eyes shone with tears.

“I’ll die if I stay here. Please take me home so that I can live,” talking was getting increasingly hard.

“Why would you wanna leave me?” Momo was definitely crying now. “I can make you better, Minari. I can get you some medicine.”

_Play along. Always play along._ She had to be smart with the time she had left.

“Okay. I’ll let you try. But if it doesn’t work, do you promise you’ll take me home with my parents?”

“I promise.”

Staying awake while she waited for Momo was a challenge, but just when she was about to let herself drift away, Momo rushed to her side offering a white tulip, the kind they regularly used to drink water out of. It almost slipped between her fingers when she held it.

This was it. She’d drink the water, Momo would realize she was still hurt (if hydrated) and she’d go home to her parents. Her time in Neverland would be nothing but a beautiful, eerie dream.

She was already holding the flower to her lips when she saw a golden sparkle out of the corner of her eye.

Sana’s vicious little hands latched onto her arm, trying with all her might to make her drop the medicine. It was evidence of Mina’s weakness the way she almost succeeded, before Momo snatched her and shook her in the air.

“I’ve had it with you, Sana! There’s more jealousy and selfishness in that tiny body of yours than there is in this entire island!”

Sana kept beating at Momo’s fists, but Mina was half out of it already. She downed the drink in a single gulp and had the fleeting thought that it had a weird, clumpy texture to it before losing consciousness again.

◊◊◊

At first she thinks she’s back at home, in her bed.

Her chest rises and falls painlessly for the first time in what feels like forever and there’s no gash in her stomach when she feels for it. Relief washes over her, so thick and overwhelming she almost chokes on it.

And then she opens her eyes and it’s not a bed she’s laying on at all, but rather a green, smooth surface that smells like forest. Her bloody nightgown has been replaced with a familiar-looking purple dress made out of some indescribable fabric. She looks up.

At first she thinks she’s looking out of a window at what looks like a zoomed-in picture of the Home Tree. But the window goes on all around her, and instead of a ceiling there’s a round piece of metal over her head.

Shaking, she takes a few steps forward, until she’s right against the glass. In the distance, she spots Momo taking a nap in her cot. Except she’s so big that Mina can easily see every pore in her face and every crease of her clothes, the leaves of which she’s realizing look suspiciously similar to her make-shift bed.

Mina stays still and unbreathing. Something is moving on her back. Not _something, _a part of her, as hers as any of her fingers. Golden dust sprinkles all around her. Her mouth opens wide, and yet no sound comes out. Her blood’s ran cold and her limbs are frozen in place, save for the lazy fluttering of her wings.

After a while, a girl her size shows up on the other side of the glass. She looks weak and at first Mina doesn’t recognize her, now that her wings have almost no shine to them. There’s an infinite sadness in her eyes, but Mina was right in her first assessment: she _is_ quite pretty.

Sana holds up a leaf against the glass of the jar so that Mina can read the words written in pieces of grass and flower petals.

_“I’m sorry. I tried.”_

|||

_“Once upon a time, there was a very brave queen. So brave, in fact, that she fought the captain of a pirate ship and she won. But she was hurt very badly in the battle, left on the brink of death. She was agonizing, and the other queen couldn’t bear to see her like that, so she sought the help of a friend of hers, a beautiful fairy. For all her beauty, she wasn’t very kind, and so the other queen had to fight tooth and nail to get the medicine for her beloved. And yet, once the queen was cured, she locked herself in her house of glass and refused to speak ever again. Do you wanna know how the story ends, Mina?”_

_“Mina?”_

* * *

**“All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again.”**  
**― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan**

**Author's Note:**

> The chosen line was spoken by Momo, about Mimo's Hit The Stage performance: "I love Mina so much that I lock her up and she dies." (Wouldn't it be great if I could find a link?)
> 
> EDIT: a very dear friend of mine found it for me! It's [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUDil5s54l8) at about the 1:10 mark. Now go check out @togeprii 's hogwarts au ;)
> 
> I hope you enjoyed it and please don't forget to comment! Happy 4th anniversary!!!
> 
> (come have a breakdown with me on twitter @mimoaning)


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